IntelliStar

Infobox generic
style0 = class="infobox bordered" style="width:20em;"
color = pink
name = "IntelliStar"
img1 = IntelliStar-New-Blue-LDL-v3.png lbl1 = Manufactured:
row1 = Wind River Systems
lbl2 = Family:
row2 = IntelliStar
lbl3 = Hardware:
row3 = Custom computer using Intel x86-based processor
lbl4 = OS:
row4 = FreeBSD
lbl5 = Graphics:
row5 = Vector/Raster
lbl6 = Release Date:
row6 = Beta - 3Q 2003Final - 1Q 2004
lbl7 = Status:
row7 = Currently used in most cable systems

IntelliStar is the fifth generation successor to the WeatherStar systems used by the American cable TV and satellite TV channel The Weather Channel (TWC), for inserting local forecasts and current weather information (such as the "Local on the 8s" portion of their program schedule) into TWC's programming. Like the WeatherStar, it is installed as well at the cable TV company's headend.

The IntelliStar has many enhanced features over its predecessor, the WeatherStar XL. Like all other WeatherStars, the IntelliStar receives its data over a satellite connection. However, unlike the rest, it has the capability to receive more complex information, more efficiently. It also has a Dual Feed feature, which allows a selection of two different video feeds. In the event of inclement weather, the DualFeed option would switch from the first (network) feed, to a second (localized) feed , providing weather information to a specific STAR or network of STARs. By doing this, the specified network of STARs could be addressed with weather updates, versus the entire national network of STARs (where such information would be irrelevant).

It also has improved display graphics, dynamic radar capabilities, and a feature called Vocal Local, in which a pre-recorded voice will read the weather conditions displayed on screen. It plays the background music from its satellite feed and uses ducking to reduce the volume of the background music when speaking.

IntelliStar's design

The IntelliStar differs in design from previous WeatherStar units, as the IntelliStar is basically a customized rack-mount Intel CPU-based PC. It runs the FreeBSD operating system, running specialized software written by The Weather Channel to make it function as an IntelliStar, but otherwise using commodity hardware of the PC platform. This was done to minimize maintenance costs, and to ease upgrading of the IntelliStar units. The previous WeatherStar units used a proprietary hardware design that hampered any hardware upgrades (the WeatherStar XL, for comparison, uses proprietary SGI hardware, and runs IRIX).

Current Products

* Current Conditions
* Weather Bulletin (when a weather statement has been issued)
* Latest Observations
* Regional Conditions
* Metro Conditions
* Regional Radar
* Local Radar (when precipitation is present)
* Radar/Satellite (all areas except the west and Puerto Rico)
* Satellite (western locations and Puerto Rico, other areas only get this if there is an approaching hurricane, or large Nor'easter)
* Almanac
* Air Quality Forecast (select areas only)
* Tides (coastal areas only)
* Marine Forecast (coastal areas only)
* Getaway Forecast
* Outdoor Activity Forecast and School Day Weather
* Daypart Forecast
* Metro Forecast
* Morning & Afternoon Commute Forecast (seen only from 8PM-12AM)
* Regional Forecast
* 24-48 Hour Local Forecast
* The Week Ahead
* Traffic Overview (select areas only)
* Traffic Report (select areas only)
* Traffic Flow (select areas only)

IntelliStar's timeline

Late Summer 2003
* The IntelliStar begins beta testing in select markets.

March 9, 2004
* The IntelliStar has gone out of beta and begins its debut in select cable headends, including Comcast headends in markets such as Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia.
* Allen Jackson narrates the Regional and Local Radar screens when he says " [Here's] your local Doppler radar", and reads during the "36 Hour Forecast" segment, although he did not read the wind information and Weather Bulletin data until 3 months later. He also narrates The Week Ahead as "The Week Ahead", "Here's your 7-day outlook", "Your 7-day outlook, and "Your week ahead" during the Week Ahead screens.

July 2004
* DirecTV debuts the "black bar" Lower Display Line, which displays the forecast and current conditions for major cities across the U.S., and major airport delays during national segments and special programming.

* The narration also updates to begin reading the wind information during the "36 Hour Forecast" segment and "Weather Bulletin" data from the National Weather Service.

* The gray portion of the Lower Display Line becomes slightly brighter.

August 2004:
* Each cable company headend's STAR ID number on the upper right hand corner of the screen in The Weather Channel's hourly identification began displaying as "Local weather ID" on the Lower Display Line. It has been criticized because it is displayed longer than actual weather data. At first, this is displayed only on the local forecast, but later that month, it started displaying during live national broadcasts as well.

September 2004
* "Regional Forecast" map returns for those who have the metro forecast.

* "36 Hour Forecast" is renamed "Local Forecast" when it becomes a 48-hour Local Forecast, and increased to four screens.

* The AM/PM Commute Metro Maps are introduced.

* The "School Day Weather" and "Outdoor Activity Forecast" screens have also been added. The "School Day Weather" screen displays only during the school year, while in the summer, the "Outdoor Activity Forecast" displays for all days of the week, including holidays.

* As a result of the addition of these screens, more screens are used in each flavor, making the duration for each screen shorter.

*The 90 seconds flavor is discontinued.

* The hour-by-hour forecast referred to as "Daily Planner" is now renamed "Daypart Forecast".

* The IntelliStar begins its debut in Time Warner Cable headends.

October 2004
* National sponsors have been added during the local forecast, such as Intel's Centrino technology, America Online and Dell. They are shown on the upper right hand corner for 48 seconds after the ad crawl displays. In summer 2006, an animated sponsor is added.

November 2004
* Buzzing audio interference is widely reported at the beginning of the Local Forecast during the "Current Conditions" and "School Day Weather"/"Outdoor Activity Forecast" products.

December 2004
* The "Local Forecast" segment sometimes reduced to three pages because the narration keeps reading longer.

January 2005
* More cities are introduced to the Metro Forecast maps such as Lincoln/Omaha, NE.

April 2005
* Traffic products begin beta testing in Atlanta.

May 3, 2005
* The Weather Channel announcer Allen Jackson's narration was changed from "Your" to "Our" in each applicable narration, such as "Our local Doppler radar", "Our 7-day outlook", "Our week ahead", etc.

Mid-May 2005
* Traffic conditions from Traffic Pulse made its debut in the top media markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. It also displays the "Traffic Pulse" logo on the bottom left hand corner during the Local on the 8s intro.

August 15, 2005
* The IntelliStar received minor changes in graphics, including a sunny background to replace the cloud background, and the new The Weather Channel logo.

Late August 2005
* Many cities are added and removed on the metro and regional forecast maps.

Fall 2005
* The Air Quality Forecast no longer shows the data for 2-3 cities in the forecast area. Instead, it shows the air quality for only one city.
* The Intellistar begins its debut in several Adelphia headends due to Time Warner and Comcast headends getting prepared to take over.

December 15, 2005
* The "L-Bar" (aka Corner Forecast) is introduced. It displays current weather conditions and forecasts on-screen during special programming, such as "Forecast Earth", "Storm Stories", and "It Could Happen Tomorrow". This "L-bar" is similar to the one that is used by Weatherscan and NBC Weather Plus.

* The "Traffic Overview" map similar to one seen on WeatherScan was added on. The narration for the "Traffic Overview" map was "Traffic Conditions around our area" and "Traffic Congestion for our area".

* From this date through January 2, 2006, Allen Jackson's narration for the Regional/Local Doppler Radar segment is removed.

* There is a bug in the 3-day extended forecast in which the narration reads only the temperatures on the first day and not the rest of the forecast.

* The morning and afternoon commute maps are discontinued.

* The Almanac and Getaway Forecast products are discontinued for many IntelliStar units with traffic products.

December 29, 2005

* From this date until January 19, 2006, the narration says "Our extended forecast" over the 3-day "Extended Forecast" segment.

* The narration for the "Traffic Incident" and "Traffic Flow" segments were removed leaving only one remaining narration for the "Traffic Overview" map.

February 21, 2006
* The 90 second forecast is brought back, which causes the regional forecast to be discontinued for IntelliStar units with traffic products. This also causes the text-based forecast to sometimes show only two pages instead of three or four.

* The almanac returns to IntelliStar units with traffic products.

* The morning and afternoon commute maps return after a hiatus.

March 31, 2006
* HiRAD technology makes its debut. This allows TWC to choose almost any location, landmark, or neighborhood as a weather reporting station. Only certain IntelliStars received this update during this time, however by summer 2006 all IntelliStar units had HiRAD technology installed on them.

June 26, 2006
* The 90 second forecast is once again discontinued. As a result, the regional forecast map is brought back.

August 8, 2006
* A metro conditions map is added. This causes some changes made to the line-ups on the local forecast.

Fall 2006
* Dish Network receives the satellite IntelliStar. It is identical to the one used by DirecTV.

December 12, 2006
* Weather icons that were used on The Weather Channel since 1998 are replaced by more realistic icons. The changes were also made on DirecTV/Dish Network satellite, [http://www.weather.com/ weather.com] , national broadcast, and Weatherscan. Some IntelliStar units have not received this update until a month or two later. Note: The "Fog" and "Windy" are only worded in the regional/metro maps.

January 23, 2007
* The radar now includes indicators for wintry precipitation. The former "light/heavy" precipitation key is changed to "rain." Entries for "mix/ice" and "snow" are added, replacing the previous time lapse bar.

April 2007
* The Getaway Forecast is brought back on a regular basis to select IntelliStars with traffic products. It also causes not to show the traffic overview map for some IntelliStars with traffic products.

May 2007
* The 90 second forecast is brought back, which causes the regional conditions and regional forecast to be discontinued for IntelliStars with traffic products and once again it also causes the text-based forecast to sometimes show only two pages instead of three or four.

* Select traffic maps have also been disabled due to insufficient coverage of the viewing area, including Indianapolis, Fort Worth, and Orlando. Currently, there is no set date for return.

May 7, 2007
* Allen Jackson's narration is discontinued for all local forecast segments during the "prime time" hours (8:00 PM ET through 1:00 AM ET).

May 9, 2007
* The narration for the "Traffic Report" segment was brought back for certain areas only where the overview map was removed.

Mid-May 2007
* The feature turning the upper text on the black bar to yellow while a Severe Thunderstorm or Tornado Watch was effective is brought back after being inactive for several months.

May 22, 2007
* The green "CLEAR" box on the traffic flow segment has been replaced with "NO INCIDENTS REPORTED."
* The radar legend becomes interactive with the precipitation. The snow and mix indicators now only display if frozen precipitation is detected.
* From this date through October 23, Allen Jackson no longer says the current conditions at the beginning of forecast, it's now the temperature only. This is confirmed to be an error.

June 4, 2007
* The narration for the "Traffic Flow" segment was brought back for certain areas only where the overview map was removed.

Late September 2007
* Some Getaway Forecast locales change. It is confirmed that in the near future, likely in late 2007 or early 2008, the IntelliStar will have sponsors for Getaway locations and the Getaway product will soon get a face lift.

October 1, 2007
* Allen Jackson's prime time narration returns after a 6-month hiatus from 8:00PM-1:00AM ET.

October 9, 2007
* It is announced that a pending update will be beta tested on three units: the Comcast Penn Hills headend in suburban Pittsburgh; the Comcast South Bend IN, headend; and the other near Lincoln NE. This update will introduce new graphics. The national update was to occur on October 16, 2007, but was delayed until October 23, 2007 due to debugging.

October 23, 2007
* The IntelliStar received its first major graphics facelift with a new title bar and a new cloud background which occurred around 3:18 am ET.
* Once again, Allen Jackson says the full current conditions.
* The Current Conditions product has been renamed "Now", as well as the Latest Observations, Regional conditions and Metro conditions.
* The Regional Radar and Local Radar products are renamed Regional Doppler and Local Doppler, respectively.
* The images on the School Day Forecast and Outdoor Activity Forecast have been changed.
* Graphics have been added to the 24–48 hour "Local Forecast" on the right hand side of the screen, and sound effects are added to correspond with the forecasts.
* The sliding transition was replaced with a fading transition.
* The "L-bar" Local Forecast during special programming was changed. On the bottom right hand corner, the The Weather Channel bug is replaced by the "Local on the 8s" logo.

December 21, 2007
* IntelliStar units at all Verizon FiOS headends have received the October 23 upgrades.

February 7, 2008
* Any prevailing blue text on the IntelliStar was changed to black.

February 26, 2008
* On the two minute :08 and :38 flavor, the Getaway Forecast is moved between the 36/48-Hour "Local Forecast" and the "Week Ahead" on some IntelliStars (beta stage).

March 20, 2008
* The 3-Day Extended Forecast has been temporarily discontinued.
* Some STARs testing the beta Getaway-product location have been switched back to normal.
* STARs in the Pittsburgh and Atlanta areas begin testing a new Getaway and traffic product-locations. The Getaway moved to the very end of the local forecast, and the traffic products moved to directly after the current conditions products. As a result, the current conditions metro map has been replaced by the local ob pages at :08/:38, but it's unknown if this change is permanent.

Late March 2008
* The same STARs which received the traffic-placement beta on March 20, 2008 (in Pittsburgh and Atlanta), begin showing the regional forecast once again, which hasn't been seen on some IntelliStars in nearly a year. However, it is now shown after the metro maps (example sequence: Today metro > Tonight metro > Today regional). It is suspected that this is an error in the flavor.

May 2008
* The "Incidents and construction impacting our area" narration returns to some IntelliStars listing the Traffic Incidents.

May 30, 2008
* A new Lower Display Line is beta-tested in Atlanta and Pittsburgh.

June 2, 2008
* The Lower Display Line (LDL) was changed. This was made due to the new HD studio at the Weather Channel, USA. The following changes have occurred:
**The background changes to blue.
**Appearing effects are added.
**The font changes from Interstate Regular to Akzidenz-GroteskFact|date=July 2008.
**Icons appeared smaller.
**The scroll-down effect was implemented.
**The Time and Temperature appear together instead of inverting. (Note: On the bad weather crawls, only the time is displayed.)
**Monthly Precip is moved from the local forecast LDL to a new Almanac tab during national programming. Also under this tab are the day's average temperatures (new), as well as sunrise and sunset times.
**Traffic Incidents are now shown on the LDL, directly following the Traffic Flow crawl under the Traffic tab.
**Tabs are added.
**Date is missing. Those were reported as errors.
**The Local Weather ID is set to appear only on the "Local On The 8s" segments. However, they appear twice in a row. This is reported as an error.
**Visibility and Ceiling readings are set to appear only during the Local on the 8s.
**The DirecTV/Dish Network Lower Display Line (LDL) Satellite display is missing. This is also reported as an error.
* The current Local Forecast design remains the same at this time.
* The Weather Bulletin background page was changed back to the darker sky blue.
* The Regional Conditions and Regional Forecast once again return with traffic products and only used during 90 second flavors.
* The Advisory, Warning, and watches LDL remains unmodified at this time and have the same warning tone.
* The "L-Bar" is discontinued.
* The drop shadow is removed from The Weather Channel logo.

June 12, 2008
* The Lower Display Line (LDL) for DirecTV/Dish Network Satellite is upgraded. The real update for June 2, 2008 was delayed for a whole week due to debugging.
* The time for the areas in ET/CT/MT/PT for DirectTV/Dish Network Satellite on the LDL is still inverted.
* The drop shadow is removed from The Weather Channel logo on the DirecTV/Dish Network LDL.

Late June, 2008
* The beta flavor line-up (which switched the placement of the traffic screens) added to Pittsburgh and Atlanta IntelliStars on March 20, 2008, is removed.

July 1, 2008
* The temperature font on the LDL was increased.
* The upper part of the LDL was changed from a light-dark gray gradient to a light-dark blue gradient.

July 24, 2008
* The DirecTV/Dish Network IntelliStar units receive the July 1 updates.

August 27, 2008
* Two headends, including the Verizon FiOS IntelliStar in Pittsburgh, and a Comcast IntelliStar in Atlanta, receive the September 3rd update in beta format.

September 3, 2008
* The changes on the LDL changed the following:
**The Local Ad Crawl and Traffic crawl text area (dark blue background) is extended to right edge of the screen, covering up "weather.com" under the TWC logo.
**The spacing of the characters is expanded on the Local Ad Traffic Crawls to make the text more readable, as well as then font size increased and widened.
**The font size of the clock on the LDL is enlarged to make it more readable (and to match the size of the temperature).
**All of the traffic ‘dots’ are now the same size (in the traffic crawl).
**The drop shadow is added back on The Weather Channel logo as before.

September 9, 2008
* DirecTV/DISH Network Satellite IntelliStar units receive the September 3 updates.

September 25, 2008
* The LDL on DirecTV is discontinued during the "Local On The 8s" segments to make way for local forecasts by zip code fed through DirecTV receivers.

Gallery

ee also

*The Weather Channel
*WeatherStar 4000
*WeatherStar XL
*WeatherStar
*WeatherStar Jr
*WeatherScan

External links

* [http://support.weather.com/affiliates/tech_support/display/product/intellistar/features_core2_1.pdf The Weather Channel IntelliStar Features]
* [http://www.usenix.org/events/bsdcon03/tech/full_papers/baldwin/baldwin_html/article.html An article on FreeBSD's role in the operation of the IntelliStar]